The legal drama surrounding Sandra Grazzini-Rucki in family court created a cult-like group of followers who were drawn to Grazzini-Rucki’s case because many were also involved in their own disputes in family court.
Her followers knew little about the true facts involving Grazzini-Rucki’s lawless behavior in court and her unwillingness to follow court orders.
Over the last 9 years, Grazzini-Rucki and her supporters have used social media, blogs, and online forums to promote their distorted view of the facts involving Grazzini-Rucki’s family and criminal court proceedings.
The vast majority of Grazzini-Rucki’s online supporters have never attended a court hearing involving Grazzini-Rucki.
As Grazzini-Rucki’s record of documented lies continues to build, her statements and accusations have become more outrageous and untruthful.
This page of Missing in Minnesota will provide verifiable facts and primary source documents to refute false statements and fabricated incidents created by Grazzini-Rucki and her supporters.
Grazzini-Rucki and her supporters have a problem with the truth
The owner of a blog which posted extensively about Grazzini-Rucki’s family court case shut down the blog in 2016 after being notified they were facing potential civil litigation for “defamation, false imprisonment, infliction of emotional distress, negligence, tortious interference, and other serious wrongdoing that could lead to litigation seeking substantial damages…”
In an interview last year, the owner of the blog admitted they published posts about Grazzini-Rucki’s case written by another person without independently verifying the accuracy of the posts.
Grazzini-Rucki is an admitted liar
During her criminal trial, Grazzini-Rucki testified that she had been repeatedly “dishonest” when she previously testified under oath in her divorce and custody proceeding with her ex-husband, David Rucki.
After being confronted with the documented factual inaccuracies of their misstatements, Grazzini-Rucki and her group of supporters have resorted to creating websites to promote their propaganda and lies, or they use anonymous social media accounts to recirculate their previously debunked talking points.
Grazzini-Rucki currently does media interviews with supporters who operate their own websites, social media accounts, podcasts, or who write for fringe publications. She continues to recycle many of the same lies in her interviews which have been repeatedly debunked and proven to be false.
Questions raised about Grazzini-Rucki’s mental health
Because of Sandra Grazzini-Rucki’s erratic behavior, questions have been raised about her overall mental health.
Publicly available court documents contain numerous examples of court-appointed officials and psychologists highlighting concerns with Grazzini-Rucki’s mental health.
- “Concerns about [Grazzini-Rucki’s] mental health have been a central issue throughout these proceedings. Ms. Miles believes [Grazzini-Rucki] addressing her mental health is a key component in Petitioner having a healthy relationship with her children.”
- “Collateral sources support [David Rucki’s] allegation that [Grazzini-Ricki] is mentally unstable.”
- “Dr. Millenacker previously diagnosed [Grazzini-Rucki] with a personality with narcissistic and histrionic features.”
- “[Grazzini-Rucki] seems to be out of touch and suffering from a personality disorder, as well as a mood disorder…“
- “[Grazzini-Rucki] had a flat affect and showed no emotion when speaking about her missing children.”
- “[Grazzini-Rucki] never followed her recommendations to seek individual counseling with a therapist who specializes in personality disorders.”
False allegations of abuse made by Grazzini-Rucki
Sandra Grazzini-Rucki was married to David Rucki in 1991. 19 years later, Grazzini-Rucki filed for divorce. In her initial petition for divorce, Grazzini-Rucki made no allegations of abuse against David Rucki, nor did she claim David Rucki abused their children.
It was only after the initial divorce decree was dismissed “based on fraud and misrepresentation by [Grazzini-Rucki], among other reasons” did Grazzini-Rucki start accusing David Rucki of abusing her, and their children.
In fact, Grazzini-Rucki called law enforcement over 20 times after the initial divorce decree was dismissed in an attempt to ensnare David Rucki.
To date, David Rucki has never been criminally charged with abuse against Grazzini-Rucki or any of their children, nor has any credible or verifiable allegation of abuse been made against David Rucki.
Court documents show Grazzini-Rucki made false allegations of physical and sexual abuse, along with allegations of professional misconduct against nearly everyone involved with her family court case. In November 2013, the court said in an order: “The Court finds that [Grazzini-Rucki’s] extensive history of making false allegations calls into question her judgment and parenting skills.”
In another incident described in court documents, Grazzini-Rucki made sexual assault allegations against David Rucki involving the children, “while simultaneously requesting that he take immediate custody of all five children.” The court noted, “these two irreconcilable positions reflect negatively on the veracity of [Grazzini-Rucki’s] allegations.”
Independent reporting from media outlets, statements from law enforcement officials, and testimony in court have confirmed the findings that Grazzini-Rucki manufactured false allegations of abuse.
- During an episode of ABC’s “20/20”, Sandra Grazzini-Rucki repeated statements she has made in the past that she was physically abused by David Rucki during their marriage. Staff from “20/20” spend hours examining 20 boxes of documents provided by Grazzini-Rucki’s attorney and found no documentation to verify Grazzini-Rucki’s claim that she was physically abused by David Rucki.
- The Lakeville police department has said that they have no record of ever being contacted by Sandra Grazzini-Rucki about abuse during her marriage to David Rucki.
- Sandra Gazzini-Rucki’s son Nico told ABC’s “20/20” that his mother “coached” him into making false allegations of abuse against his father, David Rucki.
- In an interview with the Lakeville Sun Current, Nico said his father did not abuse him or his siblings. Nico also said his mother told the children to run away from home and avoid the police.
- Sandra Grazzini-Rucki’s two oldest children testified at her criminal trial that they were not abused by their father, nor did they see their father abuse any of their siblings.
Recently, Grazzini-Rucki, through media and an “anonymous” Twitter account claims to have been physically assaulted the day one of her children was born. She claims this child was born in crisis needing emergency medical attention. Grazzini-Rucki claims she too was within inches of her life when the child was born.
Missing in Minnesota has viewed video from the birth and can confirm none of these allegations are true. A happy Grazzini-Rucki was smiling and laughing as she gave birth to a healthy child.
Sandra Grazzini-Rucki has continued her behavior of making false allegations against David Rucki, the media, law enforcement, and the judiciary, since being convicted in July 2016 on six felony counts of deprivation of parental rights.
David Rucki was awarded full custody of all five of his children in November 2013, while two of his daughters remained missing. David Rucki was reunited with his daughters days after they were found on a rural ranch in northern Minnesota. They live with him and their other siblings at the family’s home in Lakeville.